The Shorty Awards is an international awards show dedicated to celebrating purpose-driven work from global brands, agencies and nonprofits that make the world a better place. Aligning themselves more and more with this kind of work, Dan and JOE, along with the Beast Philanthropy team set out in November 2022 to rebuild an orphanage for children in need. With the help of partnerships like that with Lectric eBikes and Checkers SixtySixty the project was completed in mid-2023, featuring 12 new homes with electricity and running water. The group went further and arranged a scholarship, student housing and financial support for a year for an alumnus of the orphanage, aspiring musician Yamkela Ntabeni.

At the beginning of the year, we wrote about how Dan had been appointed as the Chief Creative Officer of the Beast Philanthropy Channel on YouTube, tasked with carrying out the creative direction of the channel’s future content…

(Just to quickly bring you up to speed: Mr Beast is the most followed YouTuber in the world and his philanthropy channel ‘leverages the power of the social media … to help raise funds to alleviate hunger, homelessness, and unemployment in the world.’)

…Well, since being appointed, Dan and JOE have helped grow the Beast Philanthropy social channels by over 9 million subscribers/followers and have over 238 million accumulative views across their social media platforms. Hello, Beyoncé of YouTube! This is a massive feat for a South African filmmaker and film production company. Congratulations Dan and JOE, for reminding us how South African storytelling can make a global impact. Can’t wait to see what you do next.